Great news from SpaceX today: Their dragon capsule has linked up with the International Space Station. From the news release I got emailed to me a bit ago:
Dragon Becomes First Commercial Spacecraft to Attach to the Space Station
Today, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) made history when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved this challenging technical feat.
SpaceX, with all of 1,800 people (plus thousands of workers at unheralded subcontractors) built and tested the rocket and the Dragon module, did it fast, and did it well. The hair-splitting I mention in the title of this post has to do with the “commercial vehicle” bit. Every American spacecraft — every one — is in essence commercial. NASA’s “government” space shuttle, which used to dock with the ISS? Built almost entirely by private-sector contractors. And NASA worked closely with SpaceX to ensure today’s success. SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s deliberate and effusive compliments to the space agency being proof. So let’s not get too carried away with the distinction between “commercial” and “government” space efforts, because even the government space efforts are commercial.
That said, kudos to SpaceX, who achieved something monumental today.
